


potential, kinetic, elastic

by Snickfic



Category: Black Panther (2018), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies)
Genre: Gen, Grief/Mourning, Post-Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-10 00:36:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15279708
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snickfic/pseuds/Snickfic
Summary: Shuri was still doing an initial survey of the damage when the blue woman stalked into Shuri’s temporary new lab, in a cleared-out holding bay at the center of the mountain.





	potential, kinetic, elastic

**Author's Note:**

  * For [wearestardust](https://archiveofourown.org/users/wearestardust/gifts).



Shuri was still doing an initial survey of the damage when the blue woman stalked into Shuri’s temporary new lab, in a cleared-out holding bay at the center of the mountain. The woman’s eyes were all pupil, and she had some kind of modification embedded in her head. Three weeks ago, Shuri would have been fascinated. Today she said, “You’re one of the aliens.”

The woman paused, gave a sharp nod. 

“How did you get in my lab?”

“You have my ship.” Her voice was low, gutteral, and angry.

“It’s not going anywhere. It’s fucked.” T’Challa would disapprove of that word, but T’Challa wasn’t here, is he? “Half the heat shields are gone. The frame is about to collapse. Three of the wings have snapped off. Your windows are blown out, I don’t know if you noticed, and that’s just the structural damage.”

The woman stared at her. It was unnerving, probably. Slowly, enunciating every word, she said, “I have to get off this planet.”

Shuri crossed her arms. “Your ship is fucked,” she repeated.

The woman growled at her. Shuri held her ground and didn’t jump. A princess of Wakanda didn’t jump. “There is no other spaceworthy ship on this entire primitive rock. I need this one. Can you repair it?”

“Obviously,” Shuri said, without thinking.

The woman stilled. She was utterly motionless, inhumanly so. She stared at Shuri with those bottomless, liquid eyes. 

_Alien_ , Shuri thought, and some fragile tendril of curiosity stirred, deep inside. “Tell me everything you know about it.”

The woman—her name was Nebula—didn’t know that much, it turned out. “I just flew it,” she said, when Shuri pressed. She watched silently as Shuri circled it, continuing to log damage to the controls, the wiring, the—

“ _What_ is _that_?” Shuri demanded. Her scanner told her the little canister under the floor grating, connected to a maze of tubing, was a nuclear accelator. 

Nebula strolled over from where she’d been lounging agains the wall, arms crossed. There was something alien in her movements, too. Something insectoid? Probably insects were too terrestrial a frame of reference. 

Nebula peered at the canister. “Gravity drive,” she said, like it should have been obvious.

“So fricking cool,” Shuri breathed, and made another note on the schematic in the scanner. Nebula returned to her place by the wall, watching. Shuri usually got itchy if someone hung around while she was working, but Nebula barely seemed to breathe, much less talk, and she definitely didn’t try to touch anything. 

It was way late when Shuri finally thought to look at the time. “Aw, crap. I should go to bed, I guess.” She rubbed at her forehead.

“I—”

“I know, I know, you need this ship. This is not a one-night job, okay.” She gave a moment’s thought to coffee—it wouldn’t be the first time she pulled a late night on a project—but this wasn’t a two- or three-day project, either. “This is gonna take a couple of weeks, at least.” She returned to the workbench and began tidying her tools for the next day. “What do you need it for, anyway? You trying to go home?”

Nebula snorted. “No,” she said, and did not elaborate.

“You just hate Earth this much?” Shuri asked, setting the scanner in its dock to recharge.

“I hate Thanos,” Nebula spit. “I need a ship so I can find him and kill him.”

The words were like the pop of a vacuum seal, and the whole outside world came rushing back in: the battle. The outsiders from Europe and America and even farther. Okoye returning to the city with a decimated Dora company and no king.

“Nobody can kill him. They tried.” 

“I will,” Nebula said, not a threat or a promise but a certainty. She stood utterly still, a coiled spring: a knot of elastic energy just waiting to be released.

“How about,” Shuri began. Her voice cracked. “How about I fix your ship, and then you kill him. Deal?”

Nebula barely paused. “Deal.”

[end]


End file.
